Google Hits The Entire Media Industry
Search giant Google has added a groundbreaking feature to its news section. With the said feature the search engine giant gives the people related to the news otherwise called 'participants' to directly respond to it.
The participants can send their feedback to news-comments@google.com along with their contact details. This is done for the search giant to verify their identity. The comments are further linked in conjunction with the normal media coverage of the story. Currently, it is up to Google to contact people and organizations connected with a particular story and ask them to comment.
The concept is nothing new. Yahoo News has already used a somewhat similar technique by displaying forums based around specific news stories. But the experience was a failure. The company has stopped it again last year because the site had been quickly weighted down by spams and other irrelevant comments.
As such, despite the fact that the privilege is given to the users of google news, the media industry is still perplexed at the same time worried. Some say the feature could result in 'decredibilization' of the entire news article.
How is Google to know the 'real' participants in a given article?
